Dark Love
by Heartless Nobody
Summary: Knuckles pursues Eggman and the Master Emerald, but finds himself wandering the catacombs of Hang CastleMystic Mansion, unaware of what lies beneath...


(Well, this next Sonic fic can be considered my very first solo shot at Knuckles/Rouge. Taking a key from my Digimon/Castlevania work, "Blood on the Goggles," I also was inspired by some artwork of a vampire Princess Sally after she's bitten by a vampire queen version of Rouge. I've been thinking, "What species of Bat is Rouge exactly? What if Rouge was a vampire bat?" And so, I bring you this little one-shot. I don't own Knuckles, Rouge, or any of the Sonic Team, but you know that already. This fic is kind of AU, taking place after Sonic Adventure, so Sonic and the gang know nothing about Rouge or Shadow.)

DARK LOVE

By Milleniumon the Sonamy Freak

Knuckles the Echidna was wondering through the inside of the castle, whose name he recently found out was dubbed "Hang Castle," the whole area seemed to emanate an atmosphere of dreariness, creepiness, and loneliness. He was in a complete bout of frustration at the moment.

It had only been 2 months since the whole stint with Perfect Chaos, and already Eggman was up to no good again, having stolen the Master Emerald yet again. Knuckles was merely doing his duty of guarding it, when he was suddenly faced with a large group of Eggman's robots. While he was busy fighting them off, Eggman was making his escape with the emerald. Now Knuckles had his treasure scope on, following the energy signature of the Master Emerald. When he found the Emerald and Eggman with it in his hands…Knuckles was going to be making "scrambled egg" tonight. It had been 15 minutes, and he was still following the trail. He was starting to wonder just WHEN the trail was going to end. When he looked off into the distance, he saw a humungous castle up ahead. The Treasure scope started beeping like crazy with the energy signature of the Master Emerald reading strong and tall from the castle's direction. "It's about time…" Knuckles growled. "Hold on Eggman, you've stolen the Master Emerald for the last time! When I find you, you're going to become Egg SALAD Man." He chuckled at his own joke as he flew off towards the castle.

Now going back into the present, all Knuckles saw was dark grey stone and concrete all around, with the occasional bit of wood. There seemed to be no sign of Eggman or his robots anywhere, yet the treasure scope STILL was picking up the energy signal. He looked forward and the signature seemed at its strongest behind the doors leading inside of the castle. The sign above the door read, "Mystic Mansion" as he walked closer. "Well, here goes nothing. The Master Emerald's in there, and no doubt that Eggman is too." He reached out and pushed open the door. When he stepped inside, Mystic Mansion resembled something like an old Victorian palace, with porcelain banisters, and a golden chandelier swinging from the top. Knuckles couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding. The whole air of the castle and mansion…while it looked ancient and fancy…Knuckles couldn't help but feel something of an ominous air throughout the whole area…

SHOOM!

Suddenly, all the lights went out, leaving the entire place in darkness. Knuckles' anxiety began to increase as he made his way up the stairs, looking around cautiously. He swore he could hear faint voices all around, yet he knew there was NOBODY in this castle. To make matters worse, his reasure scope had gone completely dead, and he was no longer picking up any signatures from the Master Emerald. Knuckles hated the darkness. It made him uneasy, because the darkness could hide thing…things that might be harmful. When he reached the top of the stairs… He slowly pushed the door open and entered the room. He walked along the red silk carpet, up to the other end, where 3 large mirrors stood. He walked up the step and studied the mirrors as he got closer. He stared intently at the mirrors, wondering if there were any secret passages in the room. His eyes rested on his reflection. He peered closely at his reflection, sensing something was odd. Then his reflection winked at him. Knuckles let out a loud gasp and stumbled back. Rubbing his eyes he stared at his reflection again. "What…"

"…the hell?" Knuckles' reflection finished his sentence. "You have NO idea…" The reflection's face morphed eerily, making a weird warping sound, before revealing the horrible, flaming visage of a ghost. "NYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The phantom laughed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Knuckles bolted from the mirror and ran for his life. But before he could reach the other side of the room, the door vanished into nothing, causing Knuckles to skid to a halt. Panicking, he looked all around, only to see more of those eerie reflection ghosts gathering around him, their fiery faces laughing at him. Before Knuckles could react…the floor opened up underneath him. "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Knuckles screamed as he plummeted into the abyss, while the ghosts continued to laugh and cackle.

After a 15 second fall, Knuckles landed smack down on his rear, but thankful landing on a few sacks of grain. The impact caused grain to spill out everywhere. Knuckles stood up weakly, feeling sore all over from the fall. He looked around at his new surroundings to find himself, in a VERY dimly lit catacomb. The only lights were a few flame lanterns littered about. "Oh man…" Knuckles groaned. "I have to get out of here, before any more of those ghosts show up." He ran down the catacomb, swearing to himself that he'd never look in a mirror ever again. He looked along the mildew stained stone walls to see slime covered spider webs hanging on the walls and ceiling and he looked away in disgust. He skidded to a halt when he heard a growing sound of squeals coming his way. Looking ahead, he saw a swarm of small black shapes coming at him. His eyes widened as he realised what was coming. "BATS!" He was suddenly bombarded by the swarm of mechanical bats coming at him. He was swatting blindly as they bombarded and covered him. He could hear their high pitched squeals and furious flapping all around a she tried to swat them away. When they finally passed him he shook his head wildly. "UGH! I hate this place!" He yelled. He just wanted to get out of this castle and fast. Thankfully, after only a few more seconds of walking, he reached the end of the catacomb. Before he could examine the surroundings though, his attention was focused on an object right in the middle of the room. There was a small stone altar in the middle, and lying there seemed to be some sort of long rectangular wooden box. He inched closer, his curiosity growing. As he stepped up onto the altar, he took notes of the odd designs on the lid of the box. He also noticed some wording on the lid. The box was covered in dust however and was unreadable. Knuckles wiped the dust off vigorously with his hand, making the print clear enough to read. He narrowed his eyes as he slowly read the print.

HERE IN THIS COFFIN, LIES THE BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY MISTRESS OF THE NIGHT, COUNTESS ROUGE THE BAT.

Knuckles' eyes widened in horror. This box was a coffin…a VAMPIRE'S coffin. His mind screamed for him to find a way out, and be far from this coffin as possible. But another part of him told him to open it up. Surely it wouldn't hurt to take a quick look inside? Knuckles found him self slowly moving the lid of the coffin off and moving it to the side, so he could look directly in the casket. He gasped at what he saw inside.

Within the coffin, there lay a young bat girl, looking like she was in her late teens. Her silky fur was as white as snow and it brushed out a bit from the neck, and her eye lids were dabbed with a deep blue eye shadow. He figure was bound to make mortal women jealous with its curves and rather large bust. She was dressed in a midnight blue silk evening dress that was more than a little revealing on the lovely lady and seemed to be cut off a little above the knee. On her feet she wore a pair of black suede dress shoes that seemed to be tied with ribbons that traveled up her legs. Her smooth, leathery wings lay folded across her chest and arms, as both they and the latter seemed to cover her chest a little.

Knuckles couldn't help but stare and admire of how beautiful this girl was. How could someone so lovely and attractive be an evil bloodsucking creature of the night? He felt as though he could stare at her beauty all night. But the other part of his mind screamed at him. 'RUN! RUN AWAY! SHE'S A VAMPIRE! WHAT HAPPENS IF SHE WAKES UP? YOU'LL BECOME HER FIRST VICTIM!' Finally giving into the frantic part of his mind, he tore his gaze away and quickly lifted up the lid of the coffin.

However, at the same moment he turned away… Rouge's eyes shot open, revealing emerald green irises, feral, and hungry for blood.

Knuckles was trying to move the lid back up, when he turned around, just in time to see Rouge stiffly and slowly rise up from her coffin. Knuckles was bone chillingly reminded of the scene in the movie, "Nosferatu," where Count Orlock rose up from his coffin in the exact same manner that Rouge had just now. Knuckles gazed at her form in both awe and horror. Awe because of the woman's striking beauty, and horror because he knew he had just woken up a vampire. He found himself paralyzed with fear, and could only watch as Rouge spread out her wings and then turned around to look at him, with those feral, but beautiful emerald eyes. 'She's seen me!' He mentally shrieked. 'C'mon, move Knuckles! Move! You don't want to end up as liquid supper!' Finally Knuckles found the energy to move and he bolted away, almost at Sonic's speed, towards the catacomb to his left, not caring if it led the way back upstairs or not, and even if it did, he'd rather deal with the ghosts, than a vampire…for at least ghosts couldn't suck him of his crimson bodily fluid.

Before Knuckles could make his escape though, Rouge materialized right in front of him, blocking his path.

"WHOA!" Knuckles skid to a halt and fell on his rear.

Rouge studied him with seductive looking eyes as she drank in the Echidna's form. "What's your hurry?" She asked, flashing him a beautiful, but cunning smile, which showed off her deadly looking fangs.

Knuckles shivered at the sight of those fangs, imagining them piercing his neck. He felt like a mouse under the gaze of a hungry tomcat. He was trapped.

Rouge stepped towards Knuckles, her dress slits showing off her long, slender legs as she walked gracefully towards the frightened echidna swaying her hips seductively, the folds of her dress swished lightly back and forth and giving Knuckles tantalizing peeks of her black silk panties as they swished from side to side. Again she smiled a fanged smile. "It's been a long time since I've had visitors… Especially such a handsome one such as you…" She licked her ruby red lips.

Knuckles backed away furiously, as Rouge kept stalking towards him. 'This can't be real… This is a dream. This is a dream! THIS IS A DREAM! Please, wake me up!' Right now, he wanted to be anywhere but here. Even though he was terrified of his situation and possible fate, he couldn't seem to tear his gaze away from Rouge's beautiful, voluptuous form. From the top, the dress only seemed to cover the bare essentials and a little more, leaving her arms and shoulder bare, along with a string tied v-line in the front that went down to her waist, exposing her massive cleavage and bellybutton. The bottom half of the dress was slit down both sides and traveled up to her broad curvy hips, leaving her long slender legs exposed. Knuckles kept scooting back until he had his back up against the wall. Rouge didn't stop walking until she was right on top of him, studying his body with those piercing emerald eyes. She placed a delicate foot on top of chest gently. Knuckles was at least thankful she wasn't wearing high heels, whose heels would just dig right into his skin.

Rouge continued to smile at Knuckles as she gazed at him. "So… What's your name?" Her voice was like honey when she spoke to him.

"It…It's Knuckles…" Knuckles stuttered out, he was sweating like crazy as his eyes matched with Rouge's gaze. He wanted to break into a sprint and run, but his body was paralyzed with fear.

Rouge giggled softly. "My, you're a nervous one." She began to bend over.

Knuckles watched Rouge bend down to him, giving him a full view of her breasts, and started to rub her hand across his chest.

"Mmm… Nice and firm…" Rouge cooed.

Knuckles shivered at her touch and voice. His emotions were at war now, not sure whether to be feeling pleasure or fear at this point. He then felt Rouge run a hand across his face, right to his chin, as she slowly coaxed him up. Knuckles slowly stood up, still fearing about what his fate was going to be.

Rouge giggled again, smiling sweetly. "Relax, handsome. I don't bite…much." She whispered in his ear.

Knuckles shivered for the umpteenth time as he felt Rouge's warm breath in his ear. Little by little, he started to feel his fear diminish, and he didn't know why. This vampire was unlike any girl he had ever met before. She was like the woman out of someone's deepest darkest fantasy. Something confused him though. Why didn't she just get it over with and drink his blood?

"I bet you're wondering why I haven't gone ahead and bitten you, aren't you?" Rouge whispered.

At long last Knuckles found his voice. "M-Maybe…" He said, his fear suddenly resurfacing. "Usually…a v-vampire would just grab his/her victim, bite their neck, suck them dry and it's over for the victim."

"Exactly…" Rouge whispered. "Do you want to know why I haven't done you in?"

Knuckles nodded dumbly.

Rouge pressed up her body to Knuckles,' so close he could feel her breasts squishing against his chest. "I've been alone…alone for so long down in this castle's basement…" He tone seemed sombre, and her eyes now depicted sadness. "I've never even had the company of other vampires, and instead have been in an eternal sleep." A tear slowly trickled down her cheek. "But then you came along…you opened up my coffin and awakened me…" A hopeful smile, though still showing her fangs, appeared on her beautiful face as she started it traced her finger along Knuckles' muzzle. "Now I don't have to be alone anymore…"

'So that's it? She just wants some company?' Knuckles was taken aback, as he gazed into Rouge's now sorrowful eyes.

Rouge wrapped her delicate arms around Knuckles and gazed right back at him into his violet eyes. "I've been waiting for someone like you all of my life, Knuckles… Please won't you stay…? I'm so alone in this dark, cold castle…" Her lips were drawing closer.

Knuckles could feel his willpower slipping away as he looked at the vampire maiden before him. His fear had all but completely vanished now, and instead, could feel a new emotion growing stronger within him. He found himself wrapping his own arms around the bat girl. "It's ok…" He started to say. "I'm here now…" His own face started to draw in closer. "I'll stay with you…"

Finally, the two souls' faces met in a kiss, as trembling lips pressed against one another, bruising each other tenderly, as tongues slowly slipped into mouths, licking the insides of the lips.

Knuckles no longer had an ounce of fear in him as he felt the kiss deepen. He embraced Rouge as they continued to kiss. He felt Rouge break away, starting to kiss him in other places.

Rouge started kissing around Knuckles muzzle lovingly, before starting to move away from his face, and down to his neck. She kissed tenderly, before stopping at a very tantalizing part of Knuckles neck. "Knuckles… You are mine… No one else… My love bite shall mark that." She opened her mouth and extended her fangs, before biting down right into Knuckles neck and started to suck.

Knuckles felt his muscles tighten as he felt the fangs sink into his flesh. He could feel his blood and life force drain as Rouge sucked on his neck seductively. But he no longer feared his fate. He trusted Rouge, and it felt like he had met the woman of his dreams in her. Who knows…maybe instead of dying…he would become a vampire too… He contemplated this as Rouge continued to suck.

After a while, Rouge removed her hold on Knuckles. Her lips and fangs dripped with Knuckles blood as she licked her lips. "Mmmm…" She purred as she gave Knuckles one last kiss on the lips.

Knuckle savoured what might be his last kiss as he felt everything go dark. "Good night Rouge…" He breathed. "I love…you…" He closed his eyes.

"I love you too, Knuckles." Rouge embraced her newfound lover. "We shall be bound together for eternity as one, now." She whispered as she wrapped her wings around Knuckles form…as she floated both of their forms back into their coffin, closing the lid on their sleeping forms.

And that night, was the last night anyone would see Knuckles the Echidna again.

THE END


End file.
